old Potzblitz thread (discontinued)

[Robotron]

Who knows? As already said it's all still very sketchy and I'll have yet to see whether it works out at all.

[Robotron]

Here's a preview of the current possibilities available on the new diplo screen for neutrals, enemies and allies:



Influence: the side with higher influence on a nation can accelerate or delay the nation's war entry depending on the value. You can use political actions to raise/lower the value via the "influence" button. Both alliances can start a bidding-war here.

Diplo budget: your budget for political actions. Can be saved over several turns to raise probabilities and effects of any action.

Diplo cost: the first action by an alliance in the game costs 1 point, the second 2, the third 3 etc., drastic measures like "destabilize" and "denounce" use up tons of diplo points. The diplo cost does NOT reset, ever.

Gain/turn: the number of diplo points an alliance gains per round, depending on the number and rank of the faction in its alliance. Britain and Germany contribute 5, France and Austria 4, Russia, Italy and Turkey 3, every other nation 1 except the US which add 4. Loss of factions due to surrender and loss of capitals reduces the income.

Diplomacy: fires pending choice-events at normal cost

Destabilize: forces anti-war demonstrations upon the victim and adds collapse points (a high cost & low chance option)

Denounce: reduces the alignment of neutrals toward the targeted alliance, again at high cost and low chance

Now I'll have to tell the AI how to use that stuff. ^^

[Moreau]

Will influencing neutrals create events? and where there be unique events for diffrent countries?
also regarding event choices can we have an event for attack Belgium or not?

[nehi]

there is a great danger, longer or more fronts, more problems for ai...

i guess involving more nations in it should be the last thing added

[Moreau]

there is a great danger, longer or more fronts, more problems for ai...

i guess involving more nations in it should be the last thing added

Well if you dont prefer that on maybe an event could counter it?
IE do you want influence neutrals on or off

[Robotron]

Will influencing neutrals create events? and where there be unique events for diffrent countries?

Yes, having the upper hand in "influence" might also speed up certain events or delay/cancel others. At the very least you have as small chance per turn for a minor shift in alignment for every nation where you have invested a seizable amount of influence. Needless to say you cannot reliably influence all the neutrals at once for lack of political points and your opponent is trying the same.

For example if properly "influenced" the Italians might stick with the CP even if AH does not cede Trento at the promise of a part of Albania? (I will add a choice for AH to cede both Trento and Triest right at the start of the game to have a reliable ally...and maybe later Italy will then be offered Tunesia to join the Entente again).

About unique events: PotzBlitz already has 450+ events so I don't see much need to add more but rather rework some of them to have choice options. These choice events will have to be "purchased" at the cost of political action points before their window of opportunity has passed.

also regarding event choices can we have an event for attack Belgium or not?

Sure can do but I'm not sure whether this is desirable from a playability point of view. The western front would probably not move at all due to lack of hexes and Germany could redeploy most of its forces to attack Russia, probably ending the game in 1915 or something like that. Neutral Belgium would also mean Britain has no reason to join and without Britain no need for Turkey and no US.

[Robotron]

Added a SIGINT option to the diplo screen: the alliance with the higher value assigned to SIGINT will have a chance (depending on the difference to the enemy's SIGINT value) to detect enemy units in FOW for a few turns.

[operating]

Robotron

I'm a little confused? Is this mod installed in the stock launch window, like Kirk did in the past?

[Robotron]

That is the briefing you get when you have installed PotzBlitz and to be clear: yes the mod can of course be launched from the standard scenario select screen (as seen in the screenshot).

[Moreau]

Can we also have an option for austria hungary to cede land to Romania in exchange for a high chance of them joining? something along those lines,maybe add 1 collapse point to austria

[Robotron]

Can we also have an option for austria hungary to cede land to Romania in exchange for a high chance of them joining? something along those lines,maybe add 1 collapse point to austria

Great idea, will be included!

*edit*

Maybe include a chance for Bulgaria becoming annoyed as a consequence and demanding stuff too to be mollified? After all Bulgaria and Romania still have grudges from the 2nd Balkan war.

[Robotron]

Making good progress with the choice-event option.

[Zombo]

Cooooooool

[Vokt]

Cool indeed since it will change the mostly for chrome events feature into something more.

Guessing that next update is going to be the big one.

[Moreau]

Can we also have an option for austria hungary to cede land to Romania in exchange for a high chance of them joining? something along those lines,maybe add 1 collapse point to austria

Great idea, will be included!

*edit*

Maybe include a chance for Bulgaria becoming annoyed as a consequence and demanding stuff too to be mollified? After all Bulgaria and Romania still have grudges from the 2nd Balkan war.

Cool! and i belive bulgaria would be quite pissed

[Moreau]

So when are youplanning to release this?

[Robotron]

So when are youplanning to release this?

Getting all of the new stuff working as intended and playtested for stability will unfortunately take at least another month. Basically I'll have to apply new checks for over 400 events so the decision option does not mess up the game. It's quite a mammoth task for a single person.

[Zombo]

Take all the time you need

[Zombo]

I suppose you've thought of that already, but there should be a German decision to declare unrestricted submarine warfare, and an Entente decision to blockade the neutrals.
also, maybe using gas could be the result of a decision rather than happening automatically once you have researched it...

[Robotron]

Thanks for your suggestions Zombo. I will add a specific button that when being pressed will authorize the use of the next step of chemical warfare starting with flamethrowers (which will be available before steel helmets tech now), then chlorine and finally phosgene (mustard gas will not trigger reactions as everybody will have gone chemical at that point).

A broad outline of how diplomatic points can be spent:

Influence: can only be applied to neutrals for a % chance per turn to accelerate/delay war entry of neutrals leaning to either alliance. The side with higher influence upon a given neutral will have a chance to influence the neutral to change its alignment at a higher or lower rate than normal. Much more influence is needed for a neutral with an "anti"-stance than for one with a "pro"-stance toward your own alliance. Also you can only delay the war entry of a neutral with an "anti"-stance and the chance is much lower than to accelerate the entry of a "pro" neutral.

Intelligence/SIGINT: can be only be applied to enemy or allied nations for the main purpose to break/protect the nation's wireless code. Breaking the code will give a small combat bonus (like "first strike" and "pursuit" for units that normally don't have that trait) for a few attacks until the code will be swapped again automatically. It might also lead to clearing FOW in enemy territory for a few turns or cause other kinds of annoying (but never game-changing) troubles.

Diplomacy: this will trigger normal and/or choice events. You can either draw one random event OR choose one from a selection of 3 for a higher cost. These might be normal events or have multiple options. Multiple choice events might incur additional costs (PP, diplo, morale, ceding hexes etc.). Unhistorical choices will usually cost even more. You will not be able to "hoard" events to play later, though events you declined to choose might reappear as long as their window of opportunity has not closed (e.g. Closing the Dardanelles will be available until Turkey has entered the war, etc.).

Furthermore enemy nations can be Destabilized and the enemy alliance can be Denounced as explained earlier in this thread but the very high cost and low chance/rewards act as deterrence in both cases.

That's all for now, stay tuned!